Location: Alexander City AL

Eugene Cleveland Gwaltney

  • October 26th, 2021

Eugene Cleveland Gwaltney, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Russell Corporation based in Alexander City, Alabama, has been with the company for 39 years and is still enthusiastic about his work and the textile industry. Just last year (in June 1990 Textile World) he was quoted as saying, “So many new procedures are coming onstream… The next ten years are going to be exciting times.”

In an industry that has been battered by a flood of imports, Russell Corporation under Eugene Gwaltney’s leadership has emerged as a world-class manufacturer of activewear and sports uniforms, ready to compete in the world market. He has been an innovator since he became- President and CEO in 1972. He is still an innovator, as indicated by his being chosen by Fortune (Spring/Summer 1991) as one of twenty-five business people who exemplify those in the United States who are helping America become a stronger competitor. These people generate ideas and put them into action.

Eugene Cleveland Gwaltney was born in Rock Hill, South Carolina, on January 25, 1918. After graduating from high school in Macon, Georgia, he entered Georgia Tech from which he earned a B.S.M.E. in 1940. His graduate study at M.I.T. came to a halt when the United States entered World War II. He served in the Army Corps of Engineers from 1941 to 1945, and he held the rank of major when he was discharged.

Before joining Russell in 1952 as Director of Research and Quality Control, he held positions with Burlington Mills, Arlind Corporation, and Robert & Company. By 1957, he had been named General Superintendent at Russell; by 1960, Vice President and Director; by 1968, President and Chief Operations Officer.

When he became President and CEO in 1972, Russell Corporation was earning about 3% on sales of $75 million. The prevailing industry wisdom at that time was to keep capital spending down, but Eugene Gwaltney disagreed with this philosophy. This “maverick of the textile industry,” as he has since been called, initiated capital spending on the modernization of all facets of the Russell operation.

He believed then, as he does now, that companies should not worry about 90-day progress reports. Companies should plan for the long term and be willing to invest in new technology today in order to ensure profits in the future.

Eugene Gwaltney’s philosophy has proved a valid one. Within three years after he became President and CEO, Russell’s profit from sales had doubled from 3% to 6%. In 1980, Russell was cited by Textile World as the Model Mill for the Eighties. By 198•4, Russell was earning 8% on sales of $353 million, almost double the industry average. By 1990, sales had reached $688 million, and Fortune 500 ranked Russell Corp. fourteenth in total return to shareholders during the previous decade. As the last decade of the 20th century began, Eugene Gwaltney said he hoped that Russell would also be the model mill for the 1990s, and it well might be.

Today Russell Corp. (once primarily a producer of ladies undergarments) is a vertically integrated, international manufacturer and marketer of leisure apparel, activewear, athletic uniforms, better-knit shirts, and a comprehensive line of lightweight yarn-dyed woven fabrics.

The company has become known worldwide for its continued modernization, acquisition, and innovative equipment investments. In every aspect of its vertical operation-from raw fiber to finished fabric to garment-Russell is continually seeking quality. For example, there is now a test and evaluation facility which helps management assess new machinery for plants in operation or on the drawing board. The company has also invested in a ginning operation to experiment in producing quality fibers.

While the corporation continues to modernize and expand its operations in the U.S. and abroad (in 1990, a sweatshirt and T-shirt manufacturing plant in Scotland became UK-Russell), Eugene Gwaltney has never lost sight of the value of Russell employees in the success of the company. He has created a climate in which employees want to learn new ways of doing things because they realize that profits occur only if everyone makes 100% effort. He believes in “hands-on management” and trains each group of new managers to be ready to “roll up their sleeves” to make new projects work.

There are exemplary childcare, education, and employee assistance programs, as well as a system of rewarding workers for a job well done.

Faith in the corporation is reflected by the fact that there are second, third, and fourth generation workers in the Alexander City operations. Also, almost everyone in senior management has been a Russell employee for a minimum of twenty years. Everyone at Russell knows the company is secure and that each person has a part in its success.

Russell Corporation has, of course, played a major role in the development of Alexander City, Alabama, since Benjamin Russell founded Russell Manufacturing Company in 1902. The family name is on the local high school, the stadium, and the hospital.

Eugene Gwaltney has extended the corporation’s involvement in the welfare of the community and its citizens through, for example, emphasis on the importance of education. Today young people seeking employment at Russell must not only have a high school diploma or

G.E.D. but also must exhibit the needed capabilities in math and reading skills required for their intended jobs. Parents working at Russell are encouraged to take part in their children’s education. Employees can take time off with pay for any requested parent-teacher conferences.

Eugene Gwaltney serves Alexander City as chairman of the Russell Hospital Board of Trustees and as vice chairman of the First National Bank of Alexander City.

Through the years, Eugene Gwaltney has also found time to serve as President of the National Knitwear Manufacturing Association and the Alabama Textile Manufacturing Association. He has been a director of the American Textile Manufacturing Institute, of the Alabama Chamber of Commerce, and of the Federal Reserve Bank in Birmingham.

He has lent his expertise and his support to higher education in Alabama through service as a member of the Board of Visitors of the College of Commerce and the Manderson Graduate School of Business at The University of Alabama; as a trustee at Birmingham-Southern College and Tuskegee Institute; and as a member of the Georgia Tech National Advisory Board.

He is currently a trustee emeritus of the Georgia Tech Foundation, as well as a member of the Alabama Management Improvement Institute and the Alabama Study Commission.

For his leadership and contributions, Eugene Gwaltney has received numerous awards. In 1976 he was the recipient of the MIT Corporate Leadership Award. In 1978, he was named Alexander City “Man of the Year,” and, in 1982, the New York Board of Trade ”Textile Man of the Year.” In 1987, he was an honoree of the American Apparel Education Foundation. In 1988, he received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from The University of Alabama in Birmingham.

Eugene C. Gwaltney, who is married to the former Nancy Russell, is probably the last of the family who will manage Russell Corporation. But this corporation, still 40% family-owned, will surely continue to be competitive in the world market because of Eugene Gwaltney’s philosophy of calculated investment in the best machinery, the best people, and the best marketing tools.

“We decided to be the best,” Eugene Gwaltney once said. And the best is what the corporation is and probably will be.

Benjamin Russell

  • October 4th, 2021

Benjamin Russell was born in Alexander City, Alabama on January 18, 1938. After graduation from The University of Alabama, he began his career at Russell Corporation, a textile and apparel company founded by his grandfather in 1902. In 1970, Russell was named president of Russell Lands, Inc., a private land and timber company owned by the Russell family.

Russell Lands owns more than 25,000 acres and over 200 miles of shoreline on beautiful Lake Martin, one of the oldest, largest, and cleanest man-made lakes in the South. Over the past 35 years, Russell Lands has developed several, upscale waterfront residential communities adjacent to Lake Martin. Starting in 1970 with just 15 employees whose primary concerns were lake cabin maintenance and timber management, Russell Lands has grown into a multi-faceted business with over 500 employees and multiple operating divisions in several Alabama counties. Recent developments at Lake Martin have attracted purchasers from as far away as California. The quality of Russell Lands’ developments is undoubtedly one reason for consistent Lake Martin property value increases over the past 35 years. Russell Lands handles sales of these properties through a subsidiary brokerage firm, Russell Lands Real Estate, Inc. In addition to its real estate development activities, Russell Lands leases more than 300 “Russell Cabins” on the shores of Lake Martin. Wonderful family memories for generations of Alabamians have been created in these cabins.

Russell Lands also owns Willow Point Golf and Country Club, one of the top golf courses in the State of Alabama. A golf course renovation completed in 2003 has resulted in an exceptional test of golf, as evidenced by the hosting of the 2008 Alabama State Seniors Championship and the 2008 Alabama State Amateur Championship.

Other Russell Lands business interests are as varied as those created by Ben’s grandfather near the turn of the 20thcentury. The Russell Marine division operates four sales and full-service marinas on Lake Martin. Russell Marine was recently recognized by Boating Industry Magazine as the number nine ranked boat dealer in the world. The Company also owns and operates nine building supply stores affiliated with Do-it Best Corporation. Do-it Best Corporation, a $4 billion cooperative with over 4,000 members, recognized Russell Lands and its 4th largest customer in 2007.

Identifying a need for alternative fuel in the ’70s, Russell formed ECON Company to promote the use of wood energy in industry. Since that time, ECON’s work has led to the use of over 5 million tons of waste wood to replace 250 million gallons of fuel oil. ECON has also led the way in the research and development of a practical wood gasification power system for vehicles. An outgrowth of its alternative energy focus resulted in the expansion of ECON’s business to include landscaping products from waste wood.

Russell’s charitable efforts have been as extensive as his business interests. In 1987, he founded and still chairs the first-ever statewide fundraising campaign for CARE, the world’s largest private relief and development agency. The campaign, CARE Alabama, has raised more than $9 million for CARE. In 1989, Russell founded and chairs Children’s Harbor, a not-for-profit childcare organization whose mission is, “Strengthening children and families.” The Children’s Harbor campus is located 15 miles south of Alexander City on the shores of Lake Martin, amid New England-style camping facilities. After a successful fundraising campaign, the campus has undergone an $8 million expansion to serve an even greater number of children and their families. Ben also made a significant financial commitment to Children’s Hospital in Birmingham, resulting in the construction of the Children’s Harbor wing, which houses the Children’s Harbor Family Center, an innovative child, and family care center. This collaborative effort with the hospital provides counseling to chronically ill children and their families.

Located adjacent to Children’s Harbor, is the Russell Lands/Lake Martin Amphitheater.

In addition to being the home of the annual Russell Lands fireworks display (one of the largest in the Southeast), the amphitheater has become a favorite destination for many talented performers. Recent performances have ranged from symphonic, bluegrass, and country to more modern forms of jazz and rock, and include names such as The Alabama Symphony, Rhonda Vincent, The Derek Trucks Band, and Sister Hazel.

Ben’s interests also extend to historical preservation and enjoyment of natural resources. On a portion of Ben’s property near Alexander City, he discovered the ruins of an ancient grist mill. He is currently restoring the grist mill to its former glory and has installed a 35-foot water wheel, one of the nation’s largest. Current plans for the site include a metal forging shop and several other period buildings, all of which rely solely on water power, wood, or gas for power.

John Russell Thomas

  • October 4th, 2021

Years before the birth of John Russell Thomas, his family had already left an indelible mark on the community of Alexander City, Alabama. The Russell’s were among the first settlers in Tallapoosa County. In 1902, John Russell’s great-uncle founded Russell Manufacturing Company, a small textile manufacturing operation that grew to become the international athletic apparel and equipment manufacturer known as Russell Corporation.

When John Russell Thomas was born to Russell and Crawford Thomas on August 1, 1937, it seemed apparent he would continue the family legacy. He started preparing for a future career in the textile industry as soon as he could. Beginning on his 16th birthday, Thomas worked during summers at Russell Corp. After graduating from Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1956, he attended Georgia Tech. Four years later, Thomas graduated with a bachelor’s degree in textile engineering. He then spent 1961 and 1962 in graduate school at The University of Alabama’s School of Business Administration. During his time in Tuscaloosa, he met Tate Jordan, whom he married in 1962.

After serving two years of active duty as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army, Thomas returned home to take the position of vice president in charge of systems and engineering at Russell Corp., the job he had planned for and anticipated most of his life.

His wife, Tate, gave birth to twin boys, John J. Thomas, and Russell L. Thomas in 1965. In 1966, not long after becoming a father himself, Thomas lost his own father. Russell Thomas had been in chief executive officer for First National Bank of Alexander City, founded in 1900 by the same uncle who created Russell Corp., and the Thomas family held a controlling interest in the financial institution. After his father’s death and issues with management succession, Thomas was forced to choose between selling the bank or running it himself. He chose the latter.

Although Thomas had been a director of the bank for eight years, he knew little about the operation and inner workings of a bank, and he had certainly never planned on a career in banking. His college education readied him for a future in the textile industry, specifically working in the family business at Russell Corp. Thomas now found himself preparing to work in the family business, but in an entirely different industry.

Faced with this midlife career switch, Thomas left little to luck. He signed up for every available Alabama Bankers Association seminar and as many American Bankers Association seminars as he could. He enrolled at the School of Banking of the South at Louisiana State University, and he went to consumer lending school. Thomas learned everything he could from every knowledgeable source available. He realized that other banks possessed a great wealth of knowledge, and as a licensed pilot, he was able to fly around the southeast collecting advice and tips from more experienced bankers.

All the hours Thomas logged trying to learn the ropes paid off; when he first took the helm at First National Bank in 1973, the bank was a small but solid operation squeezed into a building it had outgrown. It had $33 million in assets and two electric calculators. In 2008, the multibank-holding company, now called Aliant Financial Corp., reported more than $972 million in assets.

In his 35 years, Thomas has seen and helped facilitate a great deal of growth for the bank. One of the issues he immediately recognized was the need for space; Aliant has since expanded to three separate regional divisions including more than 20 branches in the Birmingham, Montgomery, and Tallapoosa areas. From the start, Thomas also realized that technology would play an important role in the future of banking. Within his first three months, the bank had purchased its first computer, and today, Aliant offers a full range of online banking services.

Thomas credits the success of the bank to its attention to basics and people. Thomas believes in finding good employees and giving them the proper training, motivation, and equipment. Often, to find the right people, Thomas goes straight to the source, visiting local schools and recruiting talented young students to join the Aliant team. He also believes in treating his employees fairly, something the Birmingham Business Journal recognized when they named Aliant among the best places to work in 2008.

During his time with Aliant, Thomas has worked diligently to help foster and instill the corporation’s core values of serving, positive attitude, outperforming, accountability, and trust, and to help build the bank that is “small enough to listen, large enough to be effective.”

According to Thomas, golfing has also been a major player in his banking career. A member of five country clubs around the Southeast, he sees golf as not only good recreation but also as great networking; on the course, he has met and befriended other banks from around Alabama and across the country.

While Thomas enjoys spending some of his free time hunting and traveling, he also gives a great deal of his time back to the community. Over the years, he has worked actively to promote better banking and business throughout Alabama, serving on boards of directors for multiple corporations and groups across the state.

In 1986, just 13 years after the start of his banking career, Thomas was chosen as president of the Alabama Bankers Association.

In Montgomery, Thomas served on the board for the Alabama Housing Finance Authority, a public corporation that offers affordable financing for housing to low-income Alabama families. He served on the board of directors for Huntingdon College and spent 19 years on the board for Alfa Insurance Corp., which services more than one million policies across 12 states.

In Alexander City, Thomas served on the board of Russell Medical Center and Russell Lands, and he served 40 years on the board of Russell Corp. He was also chairman of the Alexander City Board of Education and president of the Alexander City Chamber of Commerce.

Throughout the years, Thomas has given generously to philanthropic and political causes. He chaired the fundraising campaign for Big Brothers and Big Sisters Sports Ball of Greater Birmingham in 2005. In recognition of his contributions to the United Way, he was honored by the Alexis de Tocqueville Society.

Currently, he is on the board of directors for the Business Council of Alabama, as well as several groups promoting education.

Although he graduated from The University of Alabama in 1962, he has never ceased to be involved with the system campuses. He served on the President’s Council of The University of Alabama at Birmingham, and he was a member of the Board of Trustees of The University of Alabama for 13 years.

Today, Thomas is a member of the board of directors for the UAB Health System. He serves on The University of Alabama President’s Cabinet and the Board of the Visitors for the Culverhouse College of Business, as well as the Athletic Foundation, and he is chairman of the 1831 Foundation.

Thomas married Claudia Paden Thompson in 1995, after the death of his wife, Tate, in 1992. Together they have four children, Russell L. Thomas, John J. Thomas, Laurie McGill, and Reynolds Thompson, and 10 grandchildren.

In the face of today’s economic turmoil, Thomas remains optimistic. He is ever confident in his employees, saying that Aliant’s “great team has the grit to take the rough but necessary measures” to weather the storm. While the next few years may not be the easiest, Thomas notes that Aliant has already survived a depression and two world wars, and he envisions a solid future for Aliant. “Throughout its 109-year history, Aliant has seen good times and bad. By keeping a clear head and steadily moving forward with one foot in front of the other, we expect to meet our difficult challenges.”

Thomas Dameron Russell

  • September 20th, 2021

Thomas Dameron Russell, one of the first two living inductees to the Alabama Business Hall of Fame, carries forward an illustrious name in the history of the textile industry in the South.

That history is so intertwined with the Russell family of Alexander City as to be almost inseparable.

Tom Russell was born in 1903 in Alexander City, the second son of Benjamin Russell and Roberta McDonald Russell.

Benjamin Russell founded Russell Mills in 1902 and his three sons and daughter grew up during the pioneer days of the firm. The three boys all finished high school in Alexander City, working summers in almost every job connected with the family business, and then going on to The University of Alabama before returning to take a place beside their father.

Tom Russell completed his college work in 1925, and after a short tour of Europe became purchasing agent for Russell Mills and assistant to his father. The assistant’s title carried broad duties, and Russell remembers well that his father had him doing many things: unloading bricks, lime, and mortar and performing any other duty that needed doing. He worked in the mornings in the mill office and in the afternoons in the spinning mill.

By 1926, Tom Russell had been appointed Vice-President of the Russell Foundry, serving as general manager of this operation until 1941. In the 1930s, he along with his brothers, Benjamin Commander Russell and Robert Alston Russell, became Vice-Presidents of the Russell Manufacturing Company. Later his sister, Elisabeth Russell Alison, was also appointed as a Vice-President. In December of 1941, shortly after the opening of the Second World War, their father’s long and fruitful life ended. Tom Russell became President of Russell Foundry, and his brother Ben succeeded their father as President of the Russell Manufacturing Company. Under this administration, the company continued to expand to meet the nation’s military needs during the Second World War. The Russell Mills responded magnificently, and clothing flowed in ever-increasing quantities to the Armed Forces.

The war years wore heavily on Ben Russell, an excellent leader of men. In late 1944-45, he became ill and in January 1945, he died. Tom Russell became President of the company. Russell moved into a very difficult situation. With war’s end, a tremendous increase in demand for textiles ensued, taxes were lowered, and manpower returned from the front. To the casual observer, it would have seemed a heyday for the textile manufacturing industry, but inherent problems also existed. During the war, it was impossible to obtain new machinery or to repair worn-out machinery. Thus, it was necessary for Russell to head a program of expansion, replacement, and modernization. The company expanded rapidly: new buildings were built, additional machinery was added, and existing machinery repaired, but the boom which had been caused by the end of the war also came to an end in late 1948. Low-profit margins brought the realization that the bonanza of orders and profits was not a built-in fixture of the textile industry. Conditions forced a re-examination of the position of the company and production methods. Efficiency had to be improved, economies affected across the board, new methods employed, and labor-saving machinery located and installed.

Tom Russell more than met the challenge. The company continued profitably and was in excellent shape to meet the emergency of the Korean conflict. War’s end again brought new problems. Prices hit new lows, demand for textiles dropped disastrously, inventories continued to build to almost an all-time high, and again it was time to make a very critical self-examination of production, sales, and expenses.

Another specter soon appeared in the form of competition from foreign countries. Textile products from the Far East, aided by the liberal tariff policy of the government, posed a serious threat to the American textile industry. Again Russell Mills responded by refusing to pile up excess inventories which would weaken the price structure and by introducing newer, more competitive technology.

As the years turned to decades, Tom Russell met all challenges squarely. The company continued to grow and Russell moved from the Presidency to the Chairman of the Board of an incorporated Russell Corporation.

This story could end here and be an outstanding chronicle of success, but the story of Tom Russell is a story of far more than success in business. His accomplishments outside the field of Russell Corporation, within the community, and the section at large, are legion. He can count memberships on the board, or chairmanships of the board, or positions as president or director of more than two score corporations or associations. In addition, he has served as a member of the board of trustees of four separate educational establishments and has been honored as a member of Omicron Delta Kappa and Phi Psi. He is a recipient of the William Crawford Gorgas Award, a member of the Alabama Academy of Honor, and recipient of the honorary degree of the Doctor of Laws from his alma mater, The University of Alabama.

But even more, Tom Russell and his wife, Julia, understanding fully that axiom of Thomas Jefferson that “Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged,” have worked tirelessly over the decades to aid education toward the general well-being of their fellow citizens. As a recognition of the debt owed by the institutions of higher learning to Russell and his wife, college buildings located at Samford University, Alexander City Junior College, and Tuskegee Institute have been named for Thomas D. Russell and buildings at The University of Alabama and the University of Alabama in Birmingham have been named for Thomas D. and Julia Russell. Probably no private citizen within Alabama has had his name attached to as many buildings of institutions of higher learning as has Thomas D. Russell.

Three-quarters of a century has passed since the meager beginnings of the Russell Manufacturing Corporation. Over the years that company has dealt fairly and honestly with its customers and those who worked for it. This company, through good stewardship, has been run for the benefit of its employees, the community, and the state in which it is located. Nearly twenty years ago, Thomas Russell, in telling the story of Benjamin Russell and the Russell Manufacturing Company, stated:

The Russell family has had a heritage of public trust and responsibility to uphold. Many calls are made for its members to assume duties in many phases of activity: civic, social, and business. The members of this family have always lived up to their obligations and have taken on many jobs in civic organizations and business associations and in education.

Thomas Russell has more than lived up to that heritage and responsibility in the civic, social, business, and educational fields. He has been a giant among men in his generation.

NOTE: Portions of this biography are extracted from, “Russell of Alabama,” Thomas D. Russell, the Newcomen Society in North America.

Benjamin Russell

  • September 9th, 2021

Benjamin Russell was the origin of all things Russell, in Alabama today.

Born on a small farm in rural Tallapoosa County Alabama, exactly 100 years after 1776, Ben Russell’s genealogy traces back to Richard Russell of Westchester County, England, in the 14th century. Beginning in 1603 the lineage traces on through the church records of Ipswich County and London and finally, around 1750, James Russell crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Charleston, South Carolina. His son John Russell fought in the War of Independence. The family slowly migrated through Georgia and into Alabama.

B.F.C. and Bettie’s son, Benjamin, was “a dedicated and hardworking young man” and eventually worked his way through the University of Virginia, graduating in the spring of 1899 with a law degree.

Following his marriage in November 1899 to Roberta Bacon McDonald, Benjamin Russell practiced law in Birmingham for a few months. When his father, B.F.C., suffered a paralyzing stroke in early 1900, Benjamin returned to Alexander City to manage the family business. In the same year, at the age of 24, he founded the Citizens Bank of Alexander City, which in 1904 became the First National Bank, then Aliant Bank, the predecessor to the present-day Valley Bank System.

In April of 1902, Ben Russell founded Russell Mills in a 50 x 100-foot wooden building with six knitting machines and ten sewing machines. The new company purchased yarn for the knitting machines, which made the cloth for the cut and sew operation. The company’s first garment was a ladies and children’s knitted shirt, produced at the rate of 150 a day. Tragically, on Friday, June 13, 1902, the entire business district of Alexander City, including Citizen’s Bank, burned.

Mr. Ben did not confine his efforts to rebuilding his bank. The pioneering spirit of his lineage allowed him to quickly shake off the effects of “the great fire” and take a bold, new leap.

Young Ben Russell was quite adept at most practical applications of his ingenuity, but in those early days, success in such a fledgling business was difficult. It soon became apparent that each garment cost several cents more than it could be sold for. He met with his employees and in a heart-to-heart talk, the matter of quantity and quality of production was discussed. Following a grim “we succeed, or we fail together” declaration, they came away with an even stronger resolve. Hard work and innovation were Ben Russell’s greatest assets and these as well as a thousand other problems were ultimately solved.

In 1908, the ladies and children’s shirts went out of style and Russell changed its product line to ladies’ step-ins or teddies. Thus, the first change in what would become a constant flow of designs and garments to meet customer demands, from underwear to dress, casual, active, and athletic wear, under the Russell Athletic brand.

In the spring of 1902, “Mr. Ben,” as he was called by all, built a telephone line from Dadeville through Alexander City and on to Sylacauga, establishing the first telephone service in Alexander City. The first exchange placed twenty telephones in service through a switchboard located in the basement of the First National Bank. This business venture later was sold to Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph on February 24, 1904, for $15,250 – a significant sum in its day.

In 1911 the banker and cotton miller needed electrical power for his little mill and he began construction of a dam at Buzzards’ Roost Shoals on the Tallapoosa River, about five miles northeast of downtown Alexander City.

Alabama Power had, however, begun preparation for the massive Martin Dam project farther downstream. This impoundment would flood Mr. Ben’s site.

The old tales paint a picture of a sophisticated gentleman, briefcase in hand, calling on Mr. Ben at the construction site of his dam.

The story goes that Mr. Martin introduced himself as an attorney representing investors who had acquired the riparian rights (only) to the entire river valley.  The obvious message would have been that the small, new facility would soon be below the level of the huge, new Lake Martin, to come.

Knowing the gentlemanly nature of the two – actual facts were most likely replaced at this point by pure humor.  Allegedly, Mr. Ben informed Mr. Martin that he too was an attorney and that it would appear that they were standing on Mr. Ben’s property while discussing Mr. Martin’s visions!

We must hasten, at this point, to say that this version could not have been technically correct, for the two men became lifelong friends and worked tirelessly, together to bring us to the incredibly fortuitous point that we enjoy today.

According to Thomas W. Martin, Chairman of the Board of Alabama Power Company, Mr. Russell was the “moving spirit” behind his new Industries Light Power Company. After much negotiation, Mr. Russell sold this power project to the Interstate Power Company, which became Alabama Power Company in 1920.

In the words of Martin, “the broadminded Russell recognized the greater public benefit of the complete development of the power of the stream.  A satisfactory agreement was therefore reached with Russell for purchase of his Industries Light and Power Company and for supplying his enterprises with power through a very favorable power franchise.” Most importantly, however, Mr. Ben promoted a personal friendship and an agreement with Martin that would lead to the purchase of a significant portion of the 880 miles of shoreline property of the new lake.

Ben, like his forefathers, remained “close to the land” and he continued to develop the family farm – the pioneering spirit seems to have continued to evolve. He ultimately combined some of the land acquired from the Alabama Power Company with the family farm – in the 1930s this comprised 30,000 acres of farm and timberland on the shores of Lake Martin.

Following the founding of Russell Mills/Russell Corporation in 1902, Mr. Ben was quick to build a church for the people that were moving into the new Russell mill village. The church was a typical white structure with wood columns, offering Methodist and Baptist services on alternating Sundays – the two preachers and one congregation system seemed to work just fine, over the years.

Mr. Ben realized the need to provide education for his employees and their families and in the fall of 1917, he brought into the organization Professor R.Y. Scott to establish the Russell Mills School and hold classes in the Russell Mills church building. By 1924 the school had outgrown the church facility and a new school building was built. In 1927 the Russell School became a part of the Alexander City School System offering grades kindergarten through ninth.

The mill village grew to 350 or so houses but beginning in the late 1950s residents were encouraged to purchase property in Springhill Subdivision that had been made available and build their own home. By mid-1960 the “old mill village” had been replaced by the ever-expanding “cotton mill.”

In addition to all the mill and bank-related interests, Mr. Ben began buying or creating other businesses. In 1916 he opened the Alex City Wholesale Grocery business in the area of the present-day fire department and the former Outlook newspaper office location. Mr. Ben became owner and operator and Mr. I.C. Kelley was appointed manager. This grew into a very successful operation and by 1941 consisted of two plants with twelve buildings and over one hundred employees.

In 1920 Mr. Ben purchased the Nolen Hotel, formerly the Alabama Hotel, from Leon Nolen and changed the name to the Russco Hotel. The name was later changed to the Russell Hotel. The Hotel was located on prime property across from the railroad station in Alexander City and the dining room became the in-place in Alexander City.

In 1923 Mr. Ben built a hospital for the rapidly growing community. Russell Hospital, which was located on Lee Street, began operation with thirty-five beds and provided equipment for surgery and general inpatient care. Throughout its 41 years at the Lee Street location, many additions were made to the hospital as the town and mills continued to grow. In 1964 the Russell Hospital built a modern facility on Highway 280. Today the continually expanding Russell Medical Center is a progressive medical complex, serving several communities.

In 1923 Ben Russell completed a dam across Elkahatchee Creek, located three and one-half miles south of downtown Alexander City. He built a pumping station, pipeline, filter plant, and waterworks system that would supply the entire town until 1947, and the Russell Mills and Russell mill village until the early 1980s. For many years thereafter stories of the difficulties of digging the three-mile-long pipeline ditch by hand were legendary.

The early 1920s were outstanding years for Florida land and real estate speculation. Mr. Ben, the opportunist, purchased a hotel in Coral Gables, Florida. This would have been a very rewarding venture had it not been for the stock market crash of 1929. Florida’s real estate boom did not begin again until well after World War II.

In 1918, the young Russell purchased the Alexander City Manufacturing Company, a “millwork” or woodworking industry, with a likely predetermined objective. Prior to the completion of the “New Electric Dam,” as it was called locally, much of the 41,150-acre footprint of Lake Martin had to be cleared of “old-growth timber,” huge three to five-hundred-year-old longleaf pines as well as the tremendous hardwoods.

Seeing the potential of this operation, Mr. Russell and J.M. Steverson purchased a standard gauge rail locomotive, laid the railroad lines, and began operating the Pine Lumber Company railroad in 1916. The tracks terminated in Alexander City at the sawmill and lumberyard of Mr. Ben’s newly acquired woodworking industry.

Mr. Russell’s farming interest came from his family background, but the extreme degree of this interest has never been explained and was one of the few areas of his business ventures that could have been deemed to be not entirely logical. Land and timber alone were not challenging enough for Ben Russell, so in 1926 he formally created Dixie Farms. This was during the time Martin Dam was being constructed. This family farming business was actually managed by Mr. Ben and his brother, Thomas C. Russell, from their offices in the First National Bank in Alexander City. Thomas C. became Mayor of Alexander City in 1907 and served until 1947.

Ben Russell, always the entrepreneur, was intent on promoting farming and other productive lifestyles for the people of this most rural area of East Central Alabama. He called on his bank to cooperate in setting up a number of innovative, financial vehicles to help the cash-poor farming families set up their own ventures. The land was made available, mules were purchased, seed and fertilizer provided, and supervision offered, along with cooperative purchasing and marketing arrangements.

There were many categories of this cooperative-type venture – “one-horse (or one-mule) farms” and “two-horse farms.” Usually, one family of 3-4 would be allocated one “horse.” Cotton was the primary crop, early on. A bale of cotton would then sell for $25 and a one-horse farm could produce 4-5 bales a season.

Mr. Ben’s new farming venture, like the bank and the textile mill, was quite successful in those years and for an extended period, approximately 100 families made their livelihood on the Russell farmlands surrounding the small settlement of Dixie. The primary crops were cotton, corn, and peanuts. Later, cattle were also raised on this land. This “close to the land” thinking surely saved many a family from destitution during the harsh years of the Great Depression in the Deep South.

With the help of George Washington Carver, better farming techniques and the use of advanced, hybrid seed stock were promoted on Dixie Farms. In 1928 a successful experiment was undertaken. Ben Russell set aside 3,000 acres to provide for the production of long-staple cotton in east Alabama. These endeavors required much vision and commitment. A cotton gin, for example, had to be built at Dixie Farms.

The first farm superintendent, or overseer, of Dixie Farms, was Mr. Arthur Worthy for whom the farm church, Worthy’s Chapel, and the school were named. The church is now the Russell Farm Baptist Church. Dr. McElroy Dean, a local veterinarian, became farm superintendent of “Dixie” and remained until 1937 when Mr. Russell Ballard was appointed. Mr. Ballard, who had served as assistant superintendent when he joined Dixie Farms on November 20, 1933, became superintendent in 1937 and served in that capacity until his retirement from Russell Lands in December 1974. Mr. Ballard’s assistant, Rudolph Evans, served as head forester for Russell Lands until 1982.

“Dixie” was the central location of the old Dixie Farms, which later became the Russell Farms operation. Previously the site was home to the old Benson Dixie Industrial Company. Dixie, now Russell Crossroads, was located on the present Highway 63 just north of Windermere Road. The fields, barns, and farmhouses are gone now, along with the sawmill, turpentine mill, cotton gin, charcoal plant, blacksmith’s shop, log pond, railroad, dairy, and superintendent’s house.

During the early days of Dixie Farms, Lake Martin began to fill and Mr. Russell spent time and resources on controlling the erosion problem. It was then predicted that within 50 years the entire lake would fill with the silt washing in from the surrounding farm fields.

During these years, most small rural farms in the southeast were being abandoned to erosion and the general population shift. Even Dixie suffered the same fate as time and morays took their toll. Today it is hard to imagine that farmers, then, had no clue that their life-giving topsoil would soon be totally depleted. Mr. Ben’s solution was the promotion of an all-out war on erosion. His efforts were immense; the resulting terrace and drainage patterns covered virtually every acre of land and are still quite visible in the dense forest of today. The scope of this undertaking is evident now, however, only with the realization that the individual farmer completed these features by his own hand, with the aid of the loyal old horses and mules. Sad to relate, most of the effort was just in time for the latter days of the small farms of the South.

Fortunately, Mr. Ben’s obsession with the land provided a young forest that would in time cover the land and promote the slow process of healing the scars of “progress.” His tree planting enterprise was, however, considered to be “fool-hearted,” in those days as, “The Alabama Power Company had just cleared and sold, burned, tied down or given away timber covering much of the 44,000 acres of land covered by Lake Martin.” Fortunately, Mr. Ben had a broader goal in mind and the old rock-strewn, red clay moonscapes of that abandoned way of life have generally recovered.

Farming was a great love of Mr. Ben but today few people realize that he was looking “a mile down the road” by acquiring all of his land, based on its relationship to Lake Martin. Company property maps and records clearly show that lake frontage, not farmland, was his ultimate goal while others complained about Lake Martin and worried about malaria. Mr. Ben could scarcely believe his good fortune – “to have a gigantic lake dropped on top of us.”

Mr. Ben believed that recreation was the wave of the future and that Lake Martin was our key to this future. He had been a charter member and officer of the Alexander City Development and Industrial Club upon its organization on April 29, 1901. He was instrumental in organizing the Commercial Club of Alexander City in 1910, which in 1920 was reorganized as the Chamber of Commerce of Alexander City, where he served as the local organization’s president from 1910 to 1937. He was the driving in establishing the Alabama State Chamber of Commerce, and became its first president, serving for three years – from June 11, 1937, until the summer of the year before his death.

Mr. Ben was one of the pioneers of good roads in Alabama. He organized and was elected President of the Florida Short Route in 1920. This group was devoted entirely to the promotion of tourist travel. He was responsible for bringing the “Florida Short Route” through Alexander City and served as president of the organization until his death. He also opened the first subdivision on Lake Martin, the Lake Hills Subdivision, on March 27, 1928. The Boulder Club, also built in 1928, had a “proper” dining facility and a huge ballroom. The Boulder Club was considered the place for social activity in Alexander City.

In 1940, Mr. Ben was among several industry leaders, principally his friend Tom Martin, who organized the Alabama Research Institute for the purpose of promoting scientific research in the use of local raw materials in the manufacture of finished products. Later the name was changed to Southern Research Institute when the organization’s geographic area of interest broadened, and it began attracting people from throughout the South. It grew to have research facilities in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and Frederick, Maryland. In 1999 Southern Research Institute merged into a University of Alabama at Birmingham research program.

Mr. Ben had been ahead of his own time and with the coming of the second half of the century, long after his death, the greatest asset of Mr. Ben’s “closeness to the land” began to come to fruition – the appeal of the shoreline property to a slightly more affluent population. This “affluence” might have only been the ability of a textile worker to spend two or three hundred dollars to tear down an old mill village or tenant farmhouse and rebuild it in the form of a fishing cottage on lakefront property provided by the company. This affluence was also exemplified in the form of a banker from Birmingham paying $25/mo. for a “cabin” reconstructed by the farm crews. Thus, went the old tenant farmhouses and many of the 350 or so Russell mill village houses that were torn down during the late 1950s. Of far greater importance, however, this phenomenon signaled an era of solid proof that “The Old Man” could, in fact, “talk to you while looking over your shoulder, 100 years into the future.”

A typical example of Mr. Ben’s enthusiastic management style was told by Carl A. Swanson, who was traveling by train from Chicago to Florida when he happened to sit by Mr. Ben Russell somewhere north of Alexander City. By the time Mr. Ben reached home, he had persuaded Mr. Swanson, a highly educated and skilled electrical engineer, to spend the night and tour his mills the next day. Missing his train to Florida the next day, Mr. Swanson called his employer and turned down his promotion and a new position in Florida.

This and innumerous other examples of the man’s dynamic style prove that, in part, his success was due to the realization that even he could not make all of the decisions. He knew that he needed help in managing his varied enterprises.

During his lifetime Mr. Russell, the young man from a farm in one of the poorest and most rural areas of the South, had created a bank, a textile mill, a development potential of hundreds of miles of prime shoreline, an entire farming community, a mill village, church, school, hospital, a phone company, a municipal water supply, a foundry, a woodworking industry, a hotel, a dairy, a bakery, a soft drink bottling company, a laundry, a wholesale grocery and founded the State Chamber of Commerce.

The passing of “Mr. Ben” on December 16, 1941, brought great uncertainty to the rural community and many pondered the future of his vast and varied enterprises. Changing times and lifestyles soon caught up with the farming venture but the land remained. The farming interest had given purpose to the land for years, but its real value soon emerged.

Upon Mr. Ben’s death, the Benjamin and Roberta Russell Educational and Charitable Foundation was created from his estate to continue his philanthropic works. Each year millions of dollars are given in his memory through scholarships, endowments, and grants to various educational and charitable causes.

He was further memorialized by the dedication and naming of the Benjamin Russell High School on September 4, 1950. His son Robert enabled the city to enjoy tremendous savings by personally supervising the building of the new high school.

Biographical information provided by Russell Lands History.

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